Public hearings into violations of Indigenous People’s rights are set to begin today in Palu, Sulawesi, kicking off a series of similar hearings around Indonesia. These hearings, the first of their kind in the country, were organized by Indonesian land and environmental rights organization HuMa, the Indigenous Peoples Federation AMAN, and the Indonesian National Human Rights Commission (Komnas HAM), with contributions from the RRI coalition. During these hearings, affected Indigenous Peoples, witnesses, and the Forestry Ministry will formally present grievances to the Indonesian National Human Rights Commission.

These hearings represent a transitional moment for Indigenous Peoples in Indonesia. Komnas HAM has been aware for some time that Indigenous Peoples are disproportionately the victims of discrimination and land rights abuses, and that official complaint venues are often difficult for them to access – or even totally unavailable. Despite this awareness, there has been little action until now due to lack of funding, access to remote areas, and political will.

About these hearings, Noer Fauzi Rachman, Director of the Sajogyo Institute for Indonesian Agrarian Studies and Documentation, said “there must be a recognition of wrongdoing before the situation can be improved. We must make the government repent. This is the mechanism for revealing the wrongs.”

As part of its nation-wide inquiry into rights abuses and land conflicts, Komnas HAM will travel to seven selected provinces across Indonesia to hear a total of 42 cases. This comprehensive sampling of forest rights conflicts, from palm oil plantations to mining claims, will lead to a deeper understanding of and greater public attention to the struggles that Indigenous Peoples face.

The results of this inquiry will be presented to President Jokowi, the country’s newly elected president.  It will also form the basis for new forest reform legislation supporting a 2013 court decision that mandated that forests customarily belonging to Indigenous Peoples and local communities be removed from state-managed forests.

This is not the only RRI coalition effort that will influence national policy on forest and land rights in Indonesia. Using the results from RRI-supported grassroots visualization of ancestral domains, RRI collaborator AMAN successfully gained inclusion of six points on Indigenous Peoples’ rights into the Jokowi-Jusuf Kalla presidential campaign platform. These and other RRI coalition collective efforts are stimulating the political will for more effective forest reform and community tenure rights in Indonesia.

Photo via Rainforest Action Network